I've been doing some noodling with an extended Brayton Cycle using
thermoelectric nano-devices to scavenge additional heat off of the
exhaust from a helium turbine system like the one used in the General
Atomics Modular Helium Gas Turbine Reactor. There is a Brayton Cycle
simulator located at energyfromthorium.com (http://
www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/BraytonSim.html) which mentions that
the compressor efficiency would need to be 90% to make the numbers
stated by General Atomics match up.
So the question would be if you are moving 1.0mw of thermal energy
through a compressor at 90% efficiency, that would mean 1.1mw of
electricity used to power the compressor and an additional 0.1mw of
thermal energy created in the system, correct? (More common
compressors are listed at 85% efficiency or thereabout. 1.0mw/1.15mw/
0.15mw)
As a side question, it seems with the compression values available to
compressors of this sort, that only a single compression stage in a
regenerator would be needed to get the temperature in the gas back up
to operating range. Am I correct in this assumption or am I on the
wrong track?
